Camera showing white/black lines in overexposed areas after minor crash

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Hi, i recently had a minor crash with my Phantom 3 4k and now the camera shows odd behaviors that i haven't found any information about.

So basically what happened was that i flew into a tree at about 1.5 meters height (4-5 feet) and the drone crashed into the grass under the tree. The camera UV-filter shattered and i had to replace it so. I ordered a new ND-filter because it was cheaper and i figured that i would need it later on anyways. This was a original DJI ND4-filter that i bought from a trusted scandinavian seller. I mounted the filter and it went fine, a couple days later when i flew for the first time after the crash (the weather was bad so i had to wait) i saw some weird behavior in the DJI Go app, i thought this was just in the app so i checked the footage from the SD card and the problems were there too. Something worth mentioning is that the gimbal worked fine and the aircraft flew just as good as before.

This is from the first flight after the crash:
DJI_0043_good_example_of bad_image.JPG


As you can see there's these black and white lines at the top of the image and there's some white and red dots scattered across the image. These are not dead pixels i think cause they move around in the video.

Then i got in contact with the DJI support and they said i should try to reset the camera settings in the app. And so i did.

This is after the reset:
DJI_0053_Good_as_example_2.JPG

This image is marginally better but still unusable for any edits or stuff like that.

This is also after the reset but with another wierd behavior:
DJI_0051.JPG


There's this big cerise line across the image.

Can anyone help me, do i need to replace the flex ribbon cable or the whole camera setup?

I bought the drone used and therefore it didn't have any warranty.

Kind regards
Albin W
 
I have an action cam with the same issue. I suspect it is caused by loose connections to the sensor; but the device is not worth enough to bother repairing - so I never opened it.

Anyway, your issue is in either the sensor board, or connection between sensor board and the board with Ambarella chip. The signal is already damaged when Ambarella receives it.
 
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So you mean like the cable between the camera and the "base of the gimbal"? It seems unlikely that the sensor board inside the camera would fail so easily, there was only a few scratches on the metal housing of the camera. The cable also has some gaps in it (if you look sideways) and there could be a possibility of water getting into it as there was about 1.5 cm of snow when I crashed.

Thank you for the reply, it seems to have helped me a bit.

I'm still open to suggestions for fixing the drone
 
Hi,
I'm a newbie to the forum so only just spotted this topic.
You may have already resolved this issue but I was wondering if the black and white lines were caused by having the "over exposure warning" switched on in the dji go app ?
It's under settings in the camera menu, obviously you'll need to connect the phantom etc to access it.
That exposure warning causes black and white lines on the live feed but I don't know whether that would cause them to appear on the actual photos or video.
As for the strange colour bands, I used to get similar things happen on my trail camera and it seemed to be caused by formatting the SD card on a laptop instead of formatting it in the camera.
If that isn't the issue then maybe try a different SD card, it may have become corrupted during the crash.

Hope this helps
 
Hi,
I'm a newbie to the forum so only just spotted this topic.
You may have already resolved this issue but I was wondering if the black and white lines were caused by having the "over exposure warning" switched on in the dji go app ?
It's under settings in the camera menu, obviously you'll need to connect the phantom etc to access it.
That exposure warning causes black and white lines on the live feed but I don't know whether that would cause them to appear on the actual photos or video.
As for the strange colour bands, I used to get similar things happen on my trail camera and it seemed to be caused by formatting the SD card on a laptop instead of formatting it in the camera.
If that isn't the issue then maybe try a different SD card, it may have become corrupted during the crash.

Hope this helps
Dang, I also just saw this post, I have the same problem. It is not the over exposure warning, mine is on a P3A

I looked at his profile, he hasn't been on since Feb 10th 2019.

I have also tried different cards.

Rod
 
I have an action cam with the same issue. I suspect it is caused by loose connections to the sensor; but the device is not worth enough to bother repairing - so I never opened it.

Anyway, your issue is in either the sensor board, or connection between sensor board and the board with Ambarella chip. The signal is already damaged when Ambarella receives it.
This boards are the same in the Phantom or in all digital cameras?
Is this worth trying to fix, meaning I'm I going to need a magnifying glass just to see it?

Rod
 
Hi, i recently had a minor crash with my Phantom 3 4k and now the camera shows odd behaviors that i haven't found any information about.

So basically what happened was that i flew into a tree at about 1.5 meters height (4-5 feet) and the drone crashed into the grass under the tree. The camera UV-filter shattered and i had to replace it so. I ordered a new ND-filter because it was cheaper and i figured that i would need it later on anyways. This was a original DJI ND4-filter that i bought from a trusted scandinavian seller. I mounted the filter and it went fine, a couple days later when i flew for the first time after the crash (the weather was bad so i had to wait) i saw some weird behavior in the DJI Go app, i thought this was just in the app so i checked the footage from the SD card and the problems were there too. Something worth mentioning is that the gimbal worked fine and the aircraft flew just as good as before.

This is from the first flight after the crash:
View attachment 107297

As you can see there's these black and white lines at the top of the image and there's some white and red dots scattered across the image. These are not dead pixels i think cause they move around in the video.

Then i got in contact with the DJI support and they said i should try to reset the camera settings in the app. And so i did.

This is after the reset:
View attachment 107298
This image is marginally better but still unusable for any edits or stuff like that.

This is also after the reset but with another wierd behavior:
View attachment 107299

There's this big cerise line across the image.

Can anyone help me, do i need to replace the flex ribbon cable or the whole camera setup?

I bought the drone used and therefore it didn't have any warranty.

Kind regards
Albin W
Try to reformat your sd card. Or even try another one...it may be that your camera is hosed. I believe mine is. It's the weakest link.
 
I had this on P3A, it was a gimbal ribbon cable. Fiddly to replace but the part is not too expensive.
Thanks!

I will do some tinkering!

Rod
 
This boards are the same in the Phantom or in all digital cameras?

No, boards are different. But every such camera uses the same chips, and the same circuit (which is implementation example from the chip manufacturer - Ambarella). The difference is mostly in sensors and assembly quality.

Is this worth trying to fix, meaning I'm I going to need a magnifying glass just to see it?

Phantoms are more laptop-like tech rather than mobile phone tech. Whether you consider laptop components big or small - up to you.

For whether its "worth" - if I looked at it economically, I'd only ever look into the latest, most expensive models. But I'm a hobbyist, and I don't even have latest drones. I fixed a few phantoms just because I liked it. Looking at other peoples designs, finding where they had a neat idea and where they went through hopeless struggle - that's relaxing to me, and sometimes even gives me ideas for my work.
 
I had this on P3A, it was a gimbal ribbon cable. Fiddly to replace but the part is not too expensive.
Hi Gingerbloke. I have the same issue with a p3p I just bought for my son.

By "Gimbal Ribbon Cable" you mean the grey (six wires with 2 white connectors) or the black one (flat with five arms) ?
 

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Over the grey cable (real ribbon cable), video is transferred in digitally compressed form, it's after the codec. So if it were issues with this cable, you'd see artifacts in form of squares or the whole image smudging - the compression divides the movie to 64x64 px squares, and often provides only information about movement, not the real image.

The Flat Film Cable transfers video from the CMOS Sensor to the codec - meaning it's uncompressed yet, transferred in lines. So if you see strips/lines on the video, the issue is in this cable. Or in the sensor itself.
 
Thanks Quaddamage,
It's a neat explanation !

I've ordered both cables for the grey one seems to be damaged. It's a used P3P on which I have repaired several stuffs (camera rolling was faulty, alarm sounded because of an unplugged cable on the center board,...)
The black cable will be changed because of your explanations ;-)

I'll let you know if it works.
 
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